Syrian Air Force

The Syrian Arab Air Force is the aviation branch of the Syrian Armed Forces formed in 1948 upon Syrian independence. With 60,000 employees as of 2016, the air force fought in the Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, Lebanese Civil War, Syrian Civil War, and Iraqi Civil War, and it has been equipped and later supported in combat by the Russian Air Force since the time of the Soviet Union. The Syrian Air Force has been accused of war crimes such as bombing civilian areas during the Syrian Civil War, as well as using barrel bombs against targets in crowded cities such as Homs and Aleppo during the conflict. In addition, in the 1970s the Air Force's intelligence service under General Mohammed al-Khouly and Colonel Haitham Said was involved in supporting terrorist groups, with Carlos the Jackal working as a mercenary for them. The Air Force's intelligence was responsible for the assassination of French ambassador Louis Delamare in Beirut as well as the embassy's encryptor Guy Cavallo and journalist Assem al-Joundi, all in 1981-1982, and it directed Carlos in bombing the al-Watan al-Arabiya office in Paris, France as well as other French targets to respond to France's demands for the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.